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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26656012">No One Can Intimidate Carrie Whitney</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CWhit/pseuds/CWhit'>CWhit</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/eemawrites/pseuds/eemawrites'>eemawrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Court of Owls, Gen, This is an Oc Fic, This is your introduction to an au I’ve been working on since April, Y’all know how the Court be, talk of shady murder, this is sort of a prequel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:47:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,678</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26656012</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CWhit/pseuds/CWhit, https://archiveofourown.org/users/eemawrites/pseuds/eemawrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Carrie Whitney is visited by a Talon.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No One Can Intimidate Carrie Whitney</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the prequel to a huge OC Talon fic I’ve been working on with eemawrites since April. I thought that prefacing it with this short story would be the best way to introduce the OC AU we’ve created. It’s only altered in when the Night of the Owls goes down and also, we sort of completely ignored the canon Talons in favor of creating our own.</p><p>Also I’m sorry that the formatting is a little skewed in some spots. I have a vague grasp on how to work with AO3’s formatting.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Talon is really pleased he convinced the Court to allow him to deal with Chase’s mother.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not because he takes any sort of pleasure out of scaring a (mostly) innocent woman out of her wits, but because he’s sure he won’t have to kill her to push her off the cold trail. Any other Talon would give her a half-hearted message and then kill her at the first sign of refusal to accept. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He </span>
  </em>
  <span>was planning to reason with her first and see if he couldn’t get her to back off. He’d always fancied himself good with words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d been forbidden from even mentioning this mission to Chase, likely because his training hadn’t really had a chance to sink in deep yet. Chase was painfully headstrong and hard to work with. That first week, when his mission had been to get through to Chase, the eight-year-old’s favorite word had been </span>
  <em>
    <span>no</span>
  </em>
  <span>, often followed by his favorite phrase </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck you</span>
  </em>
  <span>. If it’d been up to Talon, he’d have thrown the brat back on the streets and pointed him in the direction of the circus grounds. It would take almost more trouble than the kid was worth to condition him into a Talon, but it wasn’t up to Talon. The Court wanted the kid for their next Talon for no tangible reason Talon was made aware of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Currently, Chase was occupied with training under a different Talon. Neither the Talon assigned or Chase were pleased with the idea, but he’d managed to convince Chase it was necessary, just ahead of a warning that this other Talon would not hold back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chase had just stared at him, hollow-eyed in a way that made Talon feel guilty, just a little bit, deep in his gut and buried under the Court’s conditioning. It made him worry that Chase would not survive his training and Trials. He was only six months in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon huffed at himself. Talon had only known the kid for six months- he should not be so attached. Talon was a weapon, and weapons did not get to be attached to anything, least of all the fledgling under his care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Regardless, he’d cornered the other Talon before he’d left the Roost and offered him a tip or two in getting Chase to comply. It was… not well-received, but he made his point.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The trailer he’d been directed to was notable only in that it looked hand-painted, like Carrie Whitney had repainted it herself- perhaps while a tiny Chase flitted around and made himself a minor nuisance, judging by the tiny streaked handprints on the front corner of the trailer’s side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And there she was, just like he’d been sure she would be, closing and locking the trailer door behind her before crossing into the huge white tent used entirely for practicing the aerial routines.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon himself was not aerially-inclined, he mused as he followed her. He’d been trained as a knife thrower, and while he could perform the same routines as well any other Talon, he simply didn’t have the longing for flying that most of the acrobatic- and trapeze-trained Talons did. He knew Chase did, could see it in the way he relished flying any chance he got.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(It’s why he makes a point to do rooftop freerunning often- perhaps more often than he should. At least the kid gets to fly for a bit.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watches her get ready to practice her routines, and he waits for her to be almost finished preparing before he stalks out of the shadows and calls her name. “Carolyn Whitney.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not loud or particularly forceful, but she jumps anyway and twists around to look at him. After a second one hand goes behind her back, to the gun she keeps there. He almost rolls his eyes behind the goggles. He hasn’t been given the electrum yet, and he definitely can still be killed permanently, but a gun is not a threat to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been sent to order you to stop investigating your son’s death.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The look she throws him is one he’s seen a lot on Chase. It says </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t tell me what to do</span>
 </em>
  <span>. “And what are you supposed to be?” she asks, tone carefully hostile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighs.</span>
  <em>
    <span> So that’s how it's going to be, is it?</span>
  </em>
  <span> He could go with the aesthetic answer, the one that goes </span>
  <em>
    <span>death incarnate</span>
  </em>
  <span> or </span>
  <em>
    <span>a shadow</span>
  </em>
  <span> or </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gotham’s nightmares</span>
  </em>
  <span> or something equally melodramatic. He could answer as straightforwardly as possible. He could refuse to answer at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she’s hurting and defensive, and he’s here to help her. “A messenger,” he replies. “You need to stop before you get yourself hurt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She peels her lip back from her teeth- also something he’s seen Chase do, also a sign of rebellion. “I want my son </span>
  <em>
    <span>back</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” It’s practically a snarl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon is not fazed. “He’s not coming back to you,” he says, flat and detached and unemotional. It is a fact, not something to be argued. “And you will not find him if you keep digging. What you will find is death.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pulls the gun and he simply blinks, tilts his head just a little. “I am not threatening you, Carolyn. I’m warning you. It will not be me they send to make you disappear, and how much of a fuss will anyone actually put up if you vanish?” He’s inviting her to think about it, weigh her options before she makes a decision.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Any other Talon would have killed her as she drew the gun. He was pleased the Court had allowed him this mission.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watches, curious, as she looks away, looks back at him, and then sweeps away, keeping the gun in hand but she’s not really watching him at all as she paces through the sawdust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He takes a few steps after her before it’s clear that she isn’t leaving- she’s only walking the length of the tent before coming back, and he lets himself smile a little under his hood. She’s trying to think it through and find a way to get over or under him and his message, but there’s no way around it. The Court will simply have her killed if she continues to dig for Chase. He turns to watch when she marches straight past him, making small, sharp gestures with her hands, and smiles again when she tucks the gun away so she can gesture more actively. She’s not gesturing at or to him- they accompany a silent argument in her head. Eventually she whirls around and starts back up the tent, moving like a short thunderstorm front, dark and mildly intimidating. He regards her almost entirely with calm amusement, even when she marches right up to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is less calm and much less amused when she slaps him hard across the face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He rears back and she follows, making him backpedal a few steps unintentionally as she pushes into his personal space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You listen to me, you plucked chicken- I am not going to stop looking for Chase. You tell your bosses that I refuse to be intimidated by you bird-brains, and that I want my son back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon stares at her blankly, confused. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Did she- she must have missed the part where continuing to press will get her killed. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“Carolyn, they will </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill</span>
  </em>
  <span> you if you continue to try to find him. Your efforts are in vain already.” He hesitates, and then adds, “He’s safe. I can tell you that much. I’m trying to save your life by telling you to not go after him. It’s easier for the both of you, I swear it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She tries to slap him again, but he catches her wrist and pins it to her side, and grabs the other arm before she can bring it up. “Carolyn Whitney, listen to me. You can’t keep trying to go after him. You </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> get killed.” An idea occurs to him, and he adds earnestly, “And then what good will you do him? It’s better if you stop now, before you are dead. Maybe you’ll see him again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s so angry she’s trembling, he notices, and he feels guilty, but only a little, deep in his gut and buried by conditioning. He’s desperate to make her understand that she must not keep prying, that she cannot insist on digging Chase up. It’d be disastrous for all three of them- he’d be punished, and Chase would lose his mother, and Carolyn would die unnecessarily. He searches her face and sees grief, anger, and finally, </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally-</span>
  </em>
  <span> a hint of resignment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He breathes a sigh of relief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s safe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon nods. “Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you looking after him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hesitates, but nods again. “I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes harden, but she doesn’t try to break free or strike him again. “Take care of him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon bows his head. “I will do my best, but I cannot promise he will be the same person forever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hesitates before releasing her wrists, and then hesitates again before tugging his hood off. He watches her face as she studies his, and notes the way her expression changes. He knows what she sees- he’s studied himself often enough in a mirror to know the hollow look in his eyes, the scars, the pale tone of his skin. He knows how she feels about it, too. Her face is easy to read.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To her credit, she is either unafraid or she hides it well. She studies him for a moment longer, and then she says, “Do your best.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Talon isn’t sure that he can, not with what he knows is waiting for Chase during his Trials, but he nods anyway. “You won’t keep looking?” he asks. He has to be sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carolyn stares him down, narrow-eyed. “I won’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nods again. His mission is done- Carolyn Whitney has been taken care of. He can return to Chase. He pulls his hood back on, settling the familiar weight of the goggles over his nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hopefully she won’t try to follow the cold trail anymore.</span>
</p>
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